Article Text
and courage as of smoke and firebrands Bunday night before Even on Wednesday the local newspapers contained lists of firms and individuals who had suffered complete losses and had by that time secured new quarters that. in the smallest body type set solld. filled nearly two columes of space The lists were almost as long as the revised lists of sufferers by the conflagration The chivairic spirit of the community found ex. pression almost as soon as the flames had ceased to spread in grateful acknowledgments of the splendid all extended by other municipalities and in laudetory utterances regarding those at home who rose to the occasion and by courage and hard work in perilous situations averted a worse disaster That so far as is known. not a human life was prey to the finmes seems almost incredible but is nevertheless true Mayor McLane's personal direction of the losing struggle of the firemen on Bunday and Monday after Chief Horton had been disabled by contact with a heavily charged electric wire. has been everywhere commended Next to Inim. the personality which stands out most strongly in that of ex-Fire Chief McAfee who promptly tendered his services to the Mayor and directed a portion of the fight for twenty-four hours or all the firemen from other cities none earned higher praise than those who were sent from NewYork To them with their engines, is accorded the credit for having arrested the conflagration and of having saved the valuable waterfront property in the southeastern part of the city and perhape the entire portion known as East Baltimore, across Jones's Falls from the burned district The firemen of Baltimore Washington Philadelphia, York Penn. and the Maryland counties were massed at the stream for a desperate batttle with the flames which had driven them back block by block from Liberty-st the western limit of the burned district and the firemen of New-York and Atlantic City held the left of the line, where the fire WRS being driven toward them by a northwest gale They aligned themselves fearlessly between the roaring flames and the larger wharves and met the conflagration with a flood from their powerful apparatus which stayed its progress When their desperate work at that point ended the fire. which had raked for twenty-eight hours. was under control The wharves and warehouse along the basin behind the position of the New-Yorkers were saved, although at no other point in the path of the conflagration except that of vantage at Jones's Falls, was this feat accomplished. Falling brands started many fires back of the line of vallant New-Yorkers, but the men were alert and spared a stream or two from the hattle in front long enough to quench in Its incipiency each blaze in their rear The story of the enterprise of the Baltimore newspapers in issuing Monday editions from Washington offices has been told A more interesting story is connected with the return to the city of two of the number and of their resumption of business "The Baltimore News' had purchased in Philadelphia a new printing plant complete before the fire was under control and, by this time the machinery has been installed in an old foundry at Holliday and Centre sts. Two locomotives were leased from the Pennsylvania Railroad to furnish steam power and "The News" and "The Baltimore American' will share the plant, until the latter paper has rebuilt its building and installed Its own plant, which in turn will be shared by "The News" while It is engaged in erecting a new buildfing. This probably is the first Instance on record of running a newspaper plant with locomotives. On Wednesday morning a three stanza poem by e W Gillilan, entitled "The Song of the American,' was printed on the title page of the newspaper of that name. The closing lines, which well illustrate the spirit of the city in the first hours of its recovery from the shock of the disaster, are as follows: "Though cast down I'm not forsaken: Though afflicted not alone" See the future bring me glory Greater than the past has known! For the heaven of men's approval Helped me live through seething hell And. like Phoenix am rising From the ashes where fell The tangle of electric wires in the debris of the fire is said by insurance men to be the worst they ever saw Nearly all the electric car lines in the city passed through the fireswept area in one direction or the other and for three days the entire street railway service was abandoned except on a few suburban lines not crossing the devastated region or not dependent for their current on the burned main power house Herculean efforts will the required to restore the complete service, but the United Railways and Electric Company expects to get its new power house, already built, and ma ohinery into operation in 8. few days, and by means of feed wires laid In sewers to convey the current to the sub-stations. The old Pratt-st. power house was completely wrecked. with all the valuable engines and dynamos It contained. The electric light service in the streets in the heart of the city will be restored as soon as the lines can be made safe. The banks and trust companies in the burned district with a single exception, found the contents of their vaults uninjured and in that case the Injury was confined to papers and books in a vault over that for the cash and securities, which were Intact. The exception referred to was the vault of the Hopkins Place Savings Bank, which lost many records and papers in a secondary vault. The Baltimore Savings Bank has temporarily resumed business in the license room of the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, under an order of the court giving It special permission. All the banks expect to resume business within the ten days of grace conferred by a special act of the legislature of Maryland on Monday Meanwhile, the banks which escaped the fire are in every way possible aiding those less fortunate and their depositors. The announcements of the larger insurance companies of a purpose to pay losses in full and with greater promptness than their contracts require have acted like magic upon the spirits of those who suffered most severely. The prospect for prompt adjustments has induced a percentage of Immediate resumptions unparalleled in the history of great fires. All fears of a financial panic are miready past. Perhaps no other class involved in the disaster will find resuscitation 80 difficult as the manufacturing clothiers. Orders in this trade are taken from retailers months in advance, and the orders for aloth from the woollen mills are placed even earlier. The fire found the factories full of material and of partly manufactured stock all of which was destroyed. How to get cloth and make spring goods in time for delivery on the orders already in hand is a problem not easily solved. complicated several times over by the loss of patterns and styles shown when the orders were taken. Offers of aid, however, from the Wholemale Clothiers' associations in New-York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Rochester and Boston may help to solve the puzzle, although the fabrics and styles made in Baltimore are more distinctively Southem than those of other cities. The Baltimore Stock Exchange will resume busimess in temporary quarters in the Building Exchange, at Charles and Lexington sts., on Monday morning, having lost exactly one week as a result of the fire. The Stock Exchange Building will be rebuilt as soon as possible The Chamber of Com-